In many areas, natural lakes occur without natural outlets to other lakes or streams. Developers have found that such lakes can be developed to provide attractive residential lots upon which housing can be located in riparian positions, providing access to the lake for boating. However, such developments, to be attractive to residents, require the installation of lawns, plants, shrubs and trees. Maintenance of this greenery requires continuous application of fertilizers, the runoff from which transports undesirable nutrients to the lake, the result of which is the proliferation of algae and botanicals and pollution in the lake. Governmental authorities exercising jurisdiction over pollution control forbid the connection of such polluted lakes with unpolluted streams or lakes so that boating activities of riparian owners in such polluted lakes are confinded to the lake, which may be of limited extent.
To maximize the enjoyment of such riparian owners, access to other bodies of water is desirable but hitherto has been foreclosed by the objections of such governmental authorities.
Our invention permits the containment of such pollution within the polluted body of water, however, permitting access by such riparian owners to other bodies of water through the means provided.
One of the parameters which must be controlled in provision of gates of the type described in this application or in the co-pending application above identified is the circumstance that seasonal variation between the level of the water of the polluted and unpolluted bodies of water may very substantially by reason of excessive or limited land fall and variables in the rate or extent of evaporation. In some locations, this seasonal variation may be as much as 5 feet. In such circumstances, it is desirable that the gates be arranged so that they will maintain a sufficient free board above whatever the level of water in the waterway may be to insure that at all times the gate will form a barrier to passage of water through the channel.